Vancoova and Jaspa

Hello, world. This is me. We’ve been out of wifi touch for a few days, up in the mountains of Alberta. Could have gone to an internet café but couldn’t be stuffed. Been too busy doing stuff. Haven’t even missed Facebook. (Cue: Cathy, falling off chair.)

Today we saw a number of breathtakingly beautiful lakes in and around the Jasper region of Alberta, as well as taking a dip at a hot springs pool. Cathy was at the wheel, and on the other side of the road. We were planning to go to the Columbia Icefields glacier but I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. Note to self: when driving down a road called the Icefields Parkway, don’t wear shorts, you idiot. Also, this major national highway has pedestrian crossings on it. Only in Canada. The mountains here are incredible – even the medium sized ones are bigger than Kosciusko. We’re a long way up. I’m going to come back with a few hundred pictures of trees, lakes and mountains from this segment of the trip (Cathy’s denoted this the ‘nature segment’ of the trip). Oh, and some pictures of elk, mountain sheep, and a black bear we saw on the side of the road. Had lunch at a diner in the middle of town today. Note to self: never eat at a diner again. Nearly made me puke, and nearly killed Cathy. (Note to Cathy’s mum: no, not really, but it was BAD). Worst meal ever, three and a half stars.

Yesterday was the national day of Canada, and while there were fireworks, I couldn’t be bothered getting back up. Earlier someone wished me a happy Canada Day and I said “thanks, it’s my first one”. Just a small insight into the pain Cathy must endure over the next few weeks. The sun doesn’t set until about 10pm, which is my kind of sunset, but it’s not dark enough for fireworks until about 11.30pm. Cathy poked her head out the door. Earlier that day we drove to Maligne Lake and saw the world-famous Spirit Island up close. I admit I’d never heard of it before but I need to do some research – apparently Spirit Island was the subject of a famous Kodak promotion for slides. Also visited a number of waterfalls (French: chutes) which were – in a word – violent. No wonder people die when they jump the fence in search of the perfect happy snap. Also visited a country club which Cathy wanted to visit for a drink, which will probably be the closest I get to Caddyshack. Dropped a few of Dangerfield’s classic lines on the way in. Needed a better audience, clearly.

The day before was spent mostly on a train, the overnight from Vancouver, which left at about 9pm and arrived the following afternoon at Jasper at 4pm. Train is such a beautifully peaceful way to travel; firstly, they stay on the ground, and secondly, there’s a real sense of having travelled (at least, that’s what I think). Probably the lengthiest train I’ve ever travelled on – somewhere between 30 and 40 carriages, I think. It was the trans-Canada en route to Toronto, what a journey that would be! Travelled the Vancouver-Jasper leg with a couple of retired gentlemen from St Louis in the opposite compartment. Very interesting conversation about Canada, and our two respective countries. The earlier evening Cathy and I shared a drink east of Vancouver in a darkened ‘observation deck’ carriage on the train which we had to ourselves, travelling through the darkness. Lovely.

The previous day was spent wandering around the part of Vancouver adjacent to the Pacific Central railway station – we had to check out of our hotel at 11am but the train didn’t leave for Jasper until about 8pm, so after checking in our bags, we caught the bus 50 blocks up to the Punjabi area where Cathy bought a sari and some lunch at an Indian veg buffet. Walked the 50 blocks back, stopping at a watering hole or two (BC/Alberta seems to be microbrewery heaven) where we discovered the strangeness of picked blueberries.

What did we do before that? We had a gloriously sunny and warm day in Vancouver where Cathy organised a lovely picnic (French: piquenique) in Stanley Park (French: Parc Stanley), where we saw the beginnings of a local cricket match and visited the penguins and otters at the Vancouver Aquarium. Reminded me of a park (French: parc) that Cathy and I both love in Tokyo, where you completely forget you’re in a crowded city. 

Very difficult to compare Vancouver Harbour to Sydney – they’re two very different harbours, but Vancouver certainly holds its own. The only significant drawback is that Sydney has shifted a lot of its heavy industry away from the ‘tourist’ part of the harbour; it was strange to be enjoying a lovely day in the park on the harbour and looking at cement factories and piles of sulphur on the opposite shore. Other than that, it’s stunning, and I give it three and a half stars. We also had a rainy day or two where we still did stuff, including visiting Chinatown and the Dr Sun Yat Sen Chinese garden (students of China, spot the obvious flaw here) which was really quite pretty and peaceful, catching up with a work colleague of Cathy’s for dinner (next trip Israel?) looking over a misty and foggy harbour, and catching up with a very old friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in about a decade.

What else did we do in Vancouver? Visited the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) where there was an exhibition about the Cone sisters. Sadly, they’re Cone, but not forgotten (I can’t take the credit, but nonetheless made the joke a number of times in the gallery). Sadly, the art didn’t grab me all that much, but maybe I’m excited about the wondrous stuff we’ll see over the next few weeks. We walked around Vancouver quite a lot, and ended up one day on Granville Island (smallest harbour ferry ever), wandering the markets and struggling to decide what to have for lunch one day because we’re so used to having limited choice but this place had EVERYTHING (almost).

Anyway, I’ll try to write more frequently – I think we have wifi at almost every place from here on in, because I realise now how difficult it is to capture a busy week (my first in a new country) in a few short paragraphs. And now? We’re sitting in the station at Jasper, waiting for our train back to Vancouver. It’s been raining all day, and is really quite cold. I mean, *really* cold. So much for the Canadian summer – I bet it’s warmer right now in Canberra!